By Chase Kirkham, Volume Editor
One of the theological gems that will appear in Documents, Volume 15 is a 5 June 1844 letter from Joseph Smith to Pennsylvania historian Israel Daniel Rupp. Rupp had recently published a book about American religious denominations, He Pasa Ekklesia [The whole church], and devoted one of its forty-three chapters to Latter-day Saint history. Joseph Smith wrote a brief letter thanking Rupp for sending him a copy of his book. The letter reveals Smith’s attitude toward religious creeds and religious pluralism.
Joseph Smith had long viewed creeds, or dogmatic religious opinions, with suspicion. The contrasting religious views he encountered as a boy left him confused about God’s nature. In the 1830s, he taught that creeds were superstitions influenced by a corrupt spirit. He believed that they kept the nations in darkness and were upheld by “lyers preasts theavs and murderers.”[1] Smith’s criticism continued into the Nauvoo period. In an October 1843 discourse, he reasoned that while creeds “have some thuth [truth],” they prevent one from gaining knowledge and entering God’s presence.[2]
Joseph Smith’s 5 June letter echoed the reasoning of his 1843 discourse, clarifying that creeds failed to merit divine approval. “All is not gold that shines,” he explained, “any more than every religions creed is not sanctioned with the so eternally sure word of prophesy.” In the letter, Smith suggested that one encounters God through obedience rather than adherence to dogmatic principles. At the same time, the letter recognized the value of studying other religions to learn how ancient worshipers communed with God.
After praising Rupp’s book, which also contained chapters on Catholics, Jews, and various Protestant denominations, Joseph Smith remarked that “a wise man can search out the ‘old paths,’ wherein righteous men held communion with Jehovah, and were exalted.” Earlier actions by Joseph Smith made clear that he valued religious pluralism. An 1841 Nauvoo city ordinance granted “free toleration and equal Privilieges in [Nauvoo]” for Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, and “all other religious sects and denominations.”[3] While he believed that dogmatic expressions of religious belief, as evinced in creeds, could hinder religious knowledge, that did not mean that Smith saw no value in the study of other religions. Indeed, his letter to Rupp goes beyond mere tolerance for other religions to suggest the affirmative value in studying other religious traditions. Smith was introducing a religious system to his followers through which they could directly encounter God. Though he believed that dogmatic expressions of religious belief, as evinced in creeds, limited the possibilities for individual religious experience, the presence and activity of other religions did not threaten his mission.